Looking For Love
by Lonedove
Summary: Harry was sent to the Dursleys when Voldemort killed his parents. What happens when a broken Harry Potter comes to Hogwarts and gets put into Slytherin. What will Severus do when he expects an arrogant boy but instead gets a damaged boy in need of love. Will he step up and give Harry what he so desperately needs?
1. Chapter 1

**This is my first time writing a fan fiction story, so I'm not altogether sure how it will turn out. But I hope you like it!**

**Just for the record I do not own Harry Potter or any of the characters.**

**_XXX_**

Chapter 1

**_XXX_**

Harry Potter woke up from a nightmare, shaking like a leaf. He looked around at his surroundings, then sighed in relief as he realized that he was still in his cupboard. He then tensed up and listened for his uncle, hoping he didn't wake him with his screaming. Nothing good ever came out of his screaming, not that his uncle wouldn't beat him anyway just for existing, but he tried to avoid it the pain as much as possible.

You see, Harry wasn't an ordinary child. No, he was a wizard, and The Boy Who Lived at that. Not that Harry knew this. All Harry knew was that he was a freak and a disgusting waste of space that should have died with his deadbeat drunk parents in the car crash that gave him the very odd lightning bolt shaped scar in his forehead.

The he next thing Harry was aware of was a very loud banging on the cupboard door.

"Get up you, stupid freak, and cook us breakfast! Vernon will be down and everything had better be ready!" Harry sighed sadly. The last thing he heard before Aunt Petunia turned to go into the kitchen was "Waste of space. Doesn't even deserve to breath."

Harry slowly got up from the dirty mattress on the floor of the cupboard and went to open the door only, to have to try several times because his hands were shaking so badly and he couldn't get his hand to grip the door handle properly. Harry wished that this was only because of the nightmare he had just woken up from, but he knew it wasn't. Because of all the brutal beatings that Uncle Vernon gave to him,he now had to deal with extensive nerve damage through out his entire body. Most of the time it was hard to walk, and sometimes he ending up dragging his feet because he couldn't make his legs cooperate with him .

He also had a very hard time gripping things with his hands. This made writing very hard quite difficult for Harry, not that it mattered though because Harry couldn't read or write. He didn't know why, all he knew was that he was ten years old, almost eleven in a couple of days, and was labeled as retarded because if it. All the words just looked funny to him, and they kept moving around. He just couldn't make sense understand of any of it.

Harry slowly made his way into the kitchen doing, his best to stay upright and not trip. His aunt shoved him towards the stove and told him in an icy voice, "Do not burn any of it or you will have Vernon to deal with." Then as an afterthought added, "And none of you freaky shaking you tend to do all the time."

And with that, she left the kitchen to wake her precious Dudley. Harry thought bitterly about about the "freaky shaking thing" as his aunt so eloquently had put it. That was another unfortunate side effect of his uncles daily beatings. He had been shoved and hit his head, and been kicked in the head so many times that he had quite a bit of brain damage, which in turn caused him to have epilepsy. Harry didn't know that was what it was, he just thought it was another thing that made him a freak.

Bringing his mind back to the task at hand, he went back to making breakfast for his family. Not however, that he himself would get any. He would just immediately be made to start in he his chores for the day. Harry soon finished the food, and had the table set just in time for his uncle to come storming into the room.

"What are you waiting for, freak? Get to work on your chores, boy, or it will be the whip for you instead of just the belt!"

Terrified, Harry left the room as quick as his body would allow him to and started on the chores.

Soon he heard the mail arrive and his uncle tell his cousin to go get it. "I don't want to! Make the freak do it," whined Dudley. "Freak, get the mail and be quick about it," shouted his uncle from the table. Harry went to retrieve the mail from under the slot and started to being bring it to the kitchen, that is until he saw an odd envelope. He had no idea what it said, but he knew he had never sen anything like it before. Before he could ponder on it any longer he heard his uncle holler from the other room.

"Hurry up, freak! What's taking so long?"

Harry quietly ducked in the doorway and meekly handed the mail to his angry uncle, eyes all the while glued to the floor.

As soon as he saw the odd envelope, Uncle Vernon started sputtering and his face started turning a rather ugly shade of purple. Scared, Harry tried to back away unnoticed. Unfortunately his uncle saw him and immediately back handed himacross the face which sent him tumbling to the floor, only to smack his head against it when he landed.

"Get into your cupboard, freak, before you get make it even worse!" His uncle yelled this, spluttering and spitting as he spoke.

Harry picked himself up and made his way to the cupboard as quickly as hepossibly could, feeling more dizzy as time went on. He barely made it into the cupboard before his body started to shake and tremble uncontrollably. His body tensed up painfully as he shook, and he lost all sense of time and space for what seemed like to be forever. When he finally did stop shaking, he was so tired he just wanted to sleep.

He had trouble breathing, and he felt like he was drowning on in the saliva that had collected at the back of his throat.

The next thing he noticed was that his pants were wet. Tears started to slide down his cheeks at a fast pace. He had soiled himself during his freakish fit. He cried harder as he thought of the beating he was going to get from his uncle for his latest infraction. Harry gave into exhaustion, and eventually a restless sleep.

**_XXX_**

Harry woke later to his cupboard door being violently thrown opened.

"Get out here, freak! It's time for your punishment for being the freak you are!" His uncle shouted this loudly in his face.

As Harry was still drowsy from the seizure, his limbs responded worse than they did on a good day and his uncle impatiently ripped him out of the cupboard by the arm, dislocating painfully it in the process. He then proceeded to ruthlessly beat poor Harry for at least thirty minutes.

Then he smiled cruelly and said, "You are leaving tomorrow to go to a school for other freaks like you! Don't bother coming back because if I ever see you again, I will kill you like I should have when we found you on our doorstep!"

Harry was happy, but at the same time he was worried. He was glad he didn't have to come back here, but he couldn't go to school either. He couldn't read, and they would find out what a freak he was, and send him back here, and then Uncle Vernon would kill him.

After a moment of thought and not being able to find a way out of going to school, Harry decided that he would just do everything in his power to keep the school from knowing about his freakishness. Even though his uncle had said it was a school for freaks, Harry knew that he would be more of a freak than anyone else and that he would make them all seem perfectly normal.

**_XXX_**

**Well that's the first chapter. Please review and** **let me know what you think. Any advice you may have to make it better is much appreciated. Just please be nice about it even if you hate it. Thank you!**

* * *

**This chapter has been edited! A big thank you to LCextrordinaire for being a beta for my story!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

**_XXX_**

Harry woke the next morning, stiff and in excruciating pain.

He took a moment to take stock of his injuries. His chest hurt, and he knew he had several bruised, if not broken ribs. His right shoulder was dislocated, his right wrist seemed to be broken, and his ankle was sprained. On top of all this, his back was riddled with welts, most oozing blood, but some of the older ones were seeping pus and smelt of infection. Harry ran his fingers over the scars that ran along his arms and thought about the scars on his back. They no doubt looked even worse. He reached up and touched a scar on his face that ran from his hairline to the bottom of his chin. It was at this moment that a thought struck him. He was going to that new school for freaks today. What was he going to do aboutall of his scars?

After thinking about this problem for a while, he decided to just wear one of Dudley's hand-me-down long sleeve shirts to cover up all the scars and hope for the best because no one could know.

His Aunt Petunia then banged on the door, thinking she was waking him up like she did every morning.

"Get up freak and cook is breakfast before you leave!"

Harry slowly pulled on his shirt and made his way to the kitchen asquickly as he could, which was actually quite slow. Harry cooked breakfast, using the same routine as every other day. Soon the meal was prepared and set out nicely on the table. Harry wished he could have some. He was so hungry, having only been allowed water for theentire past week.

**_XXX_**

All too soon it, was time to leave for the train station. Harry slowly followed his family out to the car and rode along for the short drive to Kings Cross Station. When they arrived his uncle all but threw him from the vehicle, and then shoved a ticket to board the train into his hand.

"Remember ,freak, I don't ever want to see you again. If I will kill you do you! Hear me? And don't talk to anyone about what happened to you or I'll find out and I will find you and hurt you again."

Eyes glued firmly to the ground, Harry replied, "Yes sir," before being shoved towards the entrance of the station.

The poor boy walked slowly through the station, looking for his train. He couldn't read the ticket, so he had no idea where he was supposed to be or where he was supposed to be going. As he was walking he heard a woman call out to her children and for them hurry to platform 9 3/4.

"That sounds like where freaks would go," thought Harry. He watched them go through the wall, and thought that that was definitely bit freakish. He followed a bit behind them so that he wouldn't be seen, and slowly slipped through the wall after them when no one was looking.

When he stepped through the wall, he thought it was the mostamazing place that he'd ever been. The train was very large and was blowing large amounts of steam. (Here, more description would be useful. Feel free to add it, then send it back to me so that I can edit that part.)

He started walking toward the train, trying to avoid all the people crowding the platform. When he finally made it onto the train, he found a compartment at the very back that was completely empty. He walked in and shut the door, then, taking a seat close to the window, he rested his head and closed his eyes.

**XXX**

Harry dosed for a while until the door to his compartment slammed open loudly, terrifyingHarry so that he jumped and moved as far away from the door as possible, while simultaneously curling up into a small ball. He eyed the boy in the doorway, wearily wondering what he wanted.

"Hello, my name is Draco. May I sit here?" said the boy.

Harry could only nod as he tried to get his breathing back under control. Draco took a seat on the opposite bench and looked curiously at Harry.

"I told you my name, it is polite to now tell me your name."

Harry was to surprised that someone was willingly talking to him, a freak, that he didn't say anything.

"Hello, anyone in there?" said Draco as he watched Harry.

Pulled from his thoughts, Harry looked more closely at the boy called Draco.

"I'm sorry, what?"

"I said, that since I told you my name, it is the polite thing to do to tell me your name."

"Oh right. I'm sorry. My name is Harry, Harry Potter." Harry watched as Draco's jaw dropped open, but Draco closed it quite quickly.

"It's very nice to meet you Harry."

"Nice to meet you too" said Harry quietly. Their conversation was over with that, and both boys turned to look out the window at the passing scenery.

**_XXX_**

As the train grew closer to Hogsmeade, Draco began to put on his robes.

"You had better put on your robes, Harry. We will be there soon."

Harry peeked up at Draco through his fringe, and very quietly said,"I don't have any."

Draco looked at Harry with an incredulous expression. "What do you mean you don't have any? You were supposed to get them in Diagon Alley."

"What's Diagon Alley?" asked Harry.

"Its the main place where wizards and witches do their shopping. Anyway we'll just have to tell a teacher and they will help you get some. But for now you can borrow one of mine." Draco said all of this as he handed one of his extra robes to Harry.

"Harry's eyes widened as he backed up a couple steps. "I can't take that it's yours" said Harry nervously. He knew that he was not good enough to wear a beautiful robe like that, and that he would just ruin it.

"It's fine I have plenty more. In fact you can even keep it," said Draco as he furrowed his eyebrows in thought. He decided against saying anything, for now anyway.

After thinking about it for a moment longer, Harry decided to accept,hoping that it would keep him from being noticed. After another bit of silence Draco started to talk again.

"Hey Harry, would you like to be friends?"

Harry was so startled by the question that it took him a few moments to answer.

"Sure, I've never had a friend before."

"Never?" Draco asked surprised.

Harry just shook his head.

"Well now you have me for a friend!"

**_XXX_**

Once the train pulled to a stop at the station, Draco and Harry got off and into one of the boats that a giant man named Hagrid pointed out to the future students.

As they drew nearer to the castle, the more stressed and scared Harry got. As with every other time he got really overwhelmed, he would have one of his shaking fits. Sometimes he shook a lot and hurt himself, sometimes he tensed up and shook a bit, and sometimes he did both. There were also times where he would just stop for a while, and then come back and not know what on earth was going on. So due to this, he usually tried to keep himself from getting overwhelmed.

Unfortunately, this time he wasn't able to. As the boats came to a stop and the students got out and began to walk towards the large entrance of the castle, Harry grew more and more upset. All of a sudden, he just stopped.

When Draco realized that Harry was no longer with him, he turned around and was immediately confused.

There was Harry, standing as still as a statue, except for his eyes which we're blinking rhythmically, and his fingers which kept twitching. Draco tried to get Harry's attention, with no luck. He just snapped suddenly out of it and began to continue walking towards the castle.

Draco, not knowing what to think, shook his head and decided to think about it some more later, and started to follow Harry through the doors of the castle.

The students were all led through the entrance hall to stand in front of a large double door. When the door opened, a stern looking woman told them to follow her, and that it was time to get sorted into their houses.

Harry knew what she was talking about because Draco had told him all about the different houses on the train. The sorting began and Draco was placed into Slytherin.

Eventually it was Harry's turn. He slowly made his way up to thestool that the sorting hat was placed on, trying not to fall due to his trembling which was madeeven worse because of his nervousness. He made it up to the stool and the hat was placed on his head.

He kept repeating in his head "I want to belong," over and over again. The hat, having heard his plea shouted "Slytherin" for the entire hall to hear.

The hall was completely quiet until Harry began to make his way tohis new houses table when the Slytherins began to clap for their new housemate, even if he was Harry Potter.

As the sorting continued, Harry watched as a boy with red hair,named Ronald Weasely, was sorted into Gryffindor and Blaise Zabini was sorted into Slytherin.

When the food appeared on the table Harry didn't know what to think. So he just looked down at his hands that were in his lap, and deciding to wait until it was time to leave because he knew freaks don't get food, no matter how hungry they are.

Draco eventually noticed that Harry wasn't eating, so he took it upon himself to fill Harry's plate then set it back in front of him. Harry watched Draco in surprise not knowing how to react to such an event.

Draco just smiled and said, "Eat your food, Harry." Then he went back to eating, hoping Harry would listen to him. Eventually, Harry began to eat, but only a very small amount as his stomach refused to hold anymore.

He was never aware of the stern looking black-haired man intently watching his every move.

**Ok, chapter 2 has now been edited and reposted thank you LCextrordinaire for being a beta for my story!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

**_XXX_**

When the feast ended a while later, the prefects stood and began to direct the other students to their respective houses. Harry followed at a slower pace than the other students, but managed to keep up for the most part. As they arrived at a portrait the prefect said the password.

"Flobberworm."

The portrait swung forward and open to allow entrance to the common room, which was decorated in green, silver, and black. The prefect, who called himself Marcus Flint, told the students to sit down and the first years to sit at the front of the room.

The students sat quietly as they waited for their head of house, Professor Severus Snape, to come. The students were startled, but none more so than Harry, when the door burst open and Professor Snape glided into the room, his robes billowing out behind him.

"For those of you who do not know, I am Professor Snape. As you are in Slytherin, you will not be treated the same by the other professors, or by your peers. That is why in Slytherin we take care of our own. That means no fighting outsideof the common room. If you feel you absolutely must argue, it will be done here, and only here. To the rest of the school we have and will always present a united front. I expect the best from all if you. If I here from any professors that you are not doing your work, or even just not doing your best, there will be consequences. And believe me, you won't like them and believe me that I will know what you do.

"Lastly, all of you will have a scheduled meeting with me in the first month, but the first years will continue the scheduled meetings throughout the year. Also, all first years will have a scheduled physical in the infirmary. Do not try to skip it because I will come find you and take you myself. I assure you that won't like that very much. Both schedules can be found behind you on the wall. Now go to bed. Goodnight."

And with that, Professor Snape swept from the room and through the portrait hole.

"Alright you lot, you heard the professor. Get to bed, quickly now!" said Marcus.

Harry was terrified. He knew if he had that physical everyone would know what a freak he was, and he really didn't want that. He didn't want to be sent back to the Dursleys where he knew he would be killed. As he and Draco entered the room they would share with Blaise Zabini and Theodore Nott, Harry went straight to his bed where he could be alone. He was exhausted and it was starting to show in the way his limbs began to twitch and shake more, as well as in his gait, which was making it hard for him to walk.

As Harry got into Bed and he closed the curtains and quietly cried himself to sleep.

**_XXX_**

Harry awoke slowly the next morning. He was tired as he had nightmares all night long. He knew what this meant for him, so he stayed in bed where he would be safe when the freaky shakes enough, not five minutes after he had woken up, his eyes rolled to the back of his head and his body began to convulse. His arms and legs were stiff as a board, and he could not get a good breath in.

The shaking lasted for around three minutes, and when he became aware again after another ten minutes or so, he realized that he had soiled his bedagain.

Harry quietly began to cry, wishing he wasn't such a freak, and wondering how he was going to get ready for the day without the other boys seeing his wet bed and pants. He knew that it would be a while longer before his legs would even support him to get to the bathroom to shower, and he knew that he would need to hurry if he was to get done before the other boys saw him.

Harry slowly put his feet on the floor and held onto the bed to get his balance. When he felt that he could stand, and maybe even walk on his own to the bathroom, he let go, stood up straight, then started to make the slow trek to the other room to get ready for the day aheadof him.

Unknown to him, all three boys had been awake and had seen his body go into convulsions, as well as having seen Harry his wet pants. But they decided among themselves after Harry had disappeared that they wouldn't say anything to embarrass him, so long as it didn't seem that Harry was in any immediate danger.

Once all four boys were dressed and ready for the day, they headed to the great hall for breakfast and to get their class schedules. Harry ate as much as he could wish for, which wasnot much since he spread the food around his plate so it would look like he had eaten morethan he actually had. At the end of the meal, the heads of the houses walked down the aisles to hand out all of the schedules.

Looking down at his, Harry could not make sense of any of the words. He had no idea what he was going to do when he couldn't read. To him it just made him more of a freak than he already was. Harry was brought out of his dark thoughts by Draco telling him they need to go. Harry kept up with the other students as best he could as they made their way down to the dungeons for their first class of the day. Harry wondered what class it was as Draco spoke up excitedly.

"I can't wait for potions! It's such an exciting subject!"

Harry was glad he now knew where they were going.

When they all arrived at the potions classroom, Draco all but dragged Harry up to the front of the room along with Blaise and Theodore. Harry sat quietly, just observing the room and the other students.

"Who teaches potions?" Harry asked quietly.

"Professor Snape does," answered Blaise.

He and Theodore had decided that they liked Harry. He had turned out to be different than they thought he would be.

All to soon, the happy atmosphere was shattered as the door to the classroom was banged open with enough force to practically shake the tables. Harry jumped and turned to where Professor Snape had stormed into the room. He really hoped his professor was nicer than he looked.

**Please review and tell me how you are liking the story and/or any constructive criticism. All I ask is the you keep any rude or derogatory remarks to yourself. I realize that this story will not be to everyone's liking, but there is nothing I can do about that. If you do not like the story, then don't read it. Any suggestions and/or advice is welcome though.**

**This chapter has been edited and reposted! Thank you LCextrordinaire for being a beta for my story!**


	4. Chapter 4

**_Sorry it took me so long to update. At the moment, I do not have a computer and writing on a phone isn't easy._**

**Chapter 4**

_**XXX**_

Harry avidly listened to what professor Snape was telling the class. He couldn't take notes since he couldn't read or write, but he moved his quill over the paper trying to look as though he was taking down the notes. At some point during the class Harry began to stare at a fixed point on the classroom wall while his hands twitched and his eyes blinked occasionally.

"Mr. Potter!"

Harry jumped in his seat and whipped his head around to face Professor Snape when he heard the yell.

"Think you are too good to listen to the lecture like the rest of your classmates do you?" Snape sneered.

Harry had no idea what was going on. He was paying attention and pretending to take notes wasn't he? Did the professor find out he couldn't write? He didn't understand why Professor Snape was picking on him for something he didn't do.

At this point Harry was too scared to say or do anything except stare at the Professor like a deer caught in headlights.

"So much like your father," the professor sneered. "You can't even hold yourself accountable for not paying attention. Detention tonight at 7:00 p.m. do not be late!"

By this time Harry was shaking so hard he could hardly keep himself sitting in the chair, and Draco was having to help hold him up while he looked at him in concern. He knew something had happened and that it wasn't that Harry was not paying attention, but he didn't know what it could be.

As Professor Snape berated Harry, the Gryffindors laughed and pointed from the other side of the room. Imagine Snape being mean to one of his precious snakes!

Harry tried not to cry as Professor Snape turned and continued to lecture the class.

_"I must really be a freak"_ Harry thought, _"everyone says that Professor Snape always favors his Slytherins, yet he hates me too."_

As class ended, Harry began to pack his things away into his bag. He was so drained, all he wanted to do was go to sleep and never wake up again. He had hoped to be normal and find friends, and just not be Harry the freak. But, it seemed that was impossible and he would always be a freak no matter what he did.

**_XXX_**

At dinner in the Great Hall that evening, Harry was barely able to stomach even a small amount of food. The normally small amount of food he was usually able to eat due to the starvation by the Dursleys was even smaller because of how nervous he was about his detention with Professor Snape.

What was Professor Snape going to do? Would he whip him with his belt or something worse? Would he lock him up where no one would ever find him again? Or would he chop him up to go into one of the potions?

The possibilities kept running through Harry's head. The more they came the more nervous he got.

By the time dinner was over and it was time to make his way to his detention, Harry was a nervous wreck. The limp was made so much worse that he was having to hold onto the wall to keep himself upright. His hands were shaking worse than they had since his last beating by uncle Vernon, and a nervous tic had developed, which showed itself every few seconds.

When Harry reached the potions master's door, he barely had the strength to knock.

"Enter" was heard in a cold hard voice from behind the door.

Slowly, Harry opened the door and tried to enter the room without falling. He really didn't want to make his professor madder at him than he already was.

**_XXX_**

Snape watched Harry hobble into the room slowly. He briefly wondered what was wrong with the boy, but pushed the thought to the back of his mind as quickly as it had come. _"There is absolutely nothing wrong with the insolent brat! Just like his father using every opportunity to get attention!"_

"You will scrub all of these cauldrons completely clean, without the use of magic," he told Harry as he indicated the large pile of cauldrons stacked next to the sink with his hand. "You will finish all of them before you are allowed to return to your dormitory, so I suggest you get to work quickly."

Harry looked in the direction the professor had and mumbled a soft "yes sir." _"Scrubbing cauldrons was not that bad. He had to wash the dishes for the Dursleys all the time, so this was nothing new."_

Harry set his bag on one of the desks and slowly and carefully made his way to the sink to start on his chore. He wanted to do a good job so that maybe Professor Snape would no longer be mad at him.

It was very slow going for Harry, washing the cauldrons. The nerve damage and shaking in his hands made it near impossible to hold onto the cauldrons properly. The longer it took, the more tired he got, and the more tired he got, the worse the shaking and the lack of a grip became.

Eventually, about halfway through the cauldrons set before him to wash, Harry lost his grip on the cauldron he held in his hands.

It fell to the floor with a deafening thud that resounded around the room. Harry stood frozen, unable to completely wrap his mind around what had just happened.

"Potter!" Professor Snape yelled from across the room. "What have you done? You can't even scrub cauldrons without causing trouble and trying to get more attention!"

Snape continued to yell at Harry and did not notice what was happening.

Harry had started to shake even more, and he could barely hold himself upright. _"What had he done? Now Professor Snape really was going to kill him! He just knew it!"_

At this point Harry started to have a tick, then the freaky shakes started to happen. They started off smaller, but slowly began picking up in strength.

Midway through his tirade, Severus noticed that something was off with the boy in front of him. His body was starting to convulse and it just kept getting worse.

As soon as he noticed Potter beginning to fall, he moved forward to catch him, and barely made it in time.

Severus knew that the boy was having a seizure. He had seen them before, although he had never seen them this bad. He held Harry close yet loosely so as not to let him be hurt by the convulsions, but also not holding him too tightly to cause more damage.

The seizure lasted for about five minutes, and when the convulsions started to slow, Severus stood up and carried Harry to his quarters and placed him on the couch in front of the fireplace. He then cast a charm on the edge of the couch to keep Harry from falling off.

When this was done, Severus turned to the fireplace and floo called Madame Pomfrey.

_**XXX**_

When Poppy Pomfrey stepped through the fire, she rushed over to the unconscious boy laying on the couch. He looked so small. Why hadn't she noticed how small he was before?

Slowly, Poppy moved her wand over Harry's body to do the diagnostic scan while Severus looked on, concerned and worried for the tiny boy asleep in his living room.

As much as Severus used to see James Potter's face in the boy, he could no longer look at him and treat him with the previous hatred. For the first time he saw Harry, and not James Potter.

A quill and parchment appeared next to Poppy after she finished her diagnostic scan. The quill wrote at a fast pace and the parchment just kept getting longer as the list of injuries, illnesses, and possible disabilities grew.

Both Poppy and Severus gasped as they watched the list get longer and longer without showing signs of stopping.

As the quill finally came to a stop, Poppy and Severus read what was written with growing anger barely disguised on their faces.

**_Name: _**

Harry James Potter

**_Age:_**

****Eleven years and two months

**_Injuries:_**

Bruises covering all of his body

Broken right wrist

Sprained left wrist

Left shoulder dislocated

Left ankle broken

Right ankle badly sprained

Severe nerve damage throughout entire body

Very damaged bladder

Bruised kidneys

Severely damaged lungs

Almost all bones broken at one time or another/ none healed correctly

Damaged Spine

Damaged throat/esophagus

**_Illnesses:_**

Asthma

Epilepsy

Post traumatic stress disorder

**_Disabilities:_**

Brain damage

Dyslexia

Learning disabilities

Anxiety disorders

**_All injuries, illnesses and disabilities listed above are caused by severe abuse. Learning disabilities and epilepsy are caused by brain damage which is due to severe abuse including but not limited to blunt force trauma to the head. Will never make a full recovery. _**

After they had finished reading the medical report Poppy had tears running down her face, and Severus wasn't holding up much better.

"He can't go back to those despicable people!" Poppy all but yelled.

"No, he can't" agreed Severus.

Both of them eventually came to the same decision. They would have to talk to the headmaster about this. After putting a charm on Harry to alert them if there was a problem or if Harry woke up, they both left the room and headed towards the headmaster's office.

When they arrived at the head masters office they said the password and the gargoyle moved aside.

"Ah Severus, Poppy, to what do I owe this pleasant, yet unexpected visit? Lemon drop?" Asked the headmaster with a smile on his face.

"No Albus, we do not want any of your blasted candy" said Severus with a scowl.

"Albus, we are here on important business about a severely abused student," Poppy said in a no-nonsense tone.

Immediately the smile left Albus' face and he became serious in an instant. "Who is this child?"

Poppy hesitated for a moment, then said softly, "Harry Potter."

Albus was shocked. Never in a million years did he think that _Harry Potter_ of all people would be abused. He had thought for sure that Petunia would take care of Harry as if he was her own son.

Poppy, tired of waiting, looked at Albus and said, "We must do something Albus. He can't go back to that place, to those evil people!"

"Where would you suggest I send him Poppy? He needs protection from Voldemort. You know that."

Before Severus had even thought about what he was doing he blurted out, "I will take him! He needs protection and I can do that, but more importantly he needs love and I can do that. I already care for the boy more than i thought I would ever care about anyone."

Both Albus and Poppy watched Severus with a stunned look on their faces. After what he had just said sunk in they both smiled and Albus said, "well, now that's settled, let's go check on little Harry!"

_**XXX**_

**Well, that is chapter 4. Again, I am sorry it took so long. Please review, all criticism is appreciated unless it is rude, or degrading. Please keep those comments to yourself. I understand not everyone will like this story and that's fine. Any suggestions or advice is also welcomed! **


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